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Dictyostelium discoideum genome

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The slime mould Dictyostelium discoideum has
been an important laboratory model for over 50 years. These social
amoebae normally live in forest soil where they hunt bacteria and
yeast, and have therefore excelled in studies of how cells sense and
move towards attractants in their environment. When hunting is not
successful, the unicellular organisms become one multicellular entity
and form a fruiting body to disperse spores, shown on the cover image.
Here, Nature presents analysis of
the genome and proteome of Dictyostelium, available
free. We also provide an archive of related papers and links
to major Dicty resources.